General News

Professor Cynthia Cattell of the School of Physics and Astronomy was selected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS). Cattell was nominated by the APS Topical Group in Plasma Astrophysics with the citation "For measurements of solitary waves and electric fields in the Earth's radiation belts and for observation and interpretation of the very large amplitude whistler mode waves that provide a new mechanism for accelerating trapped electrons to relativistic energies in a fraction of a second. More »

Professor Michel Janssen of the School of Physics and Astronomy and the Program in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine has been named a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS). Janssen's Fellowship was recommended by the APS Forum on the History of Physics, with the citation "For path-breaking contributions to the history of early twentieth-century physics, for excellent editorial work on Einstein papers, and for promoting substantive interactions between physicists and historians. More »

On November 3, 2010 the late Professor Alfred O. C. Nier was inducted into the Minnesota Science and Technology Hall of Fame. Nier was honored for his development and application of mass spectrometry, which most famously included isolating the first pure sample of the fissionable isotope Uranium-235 in Tate Lab in 1940. A St. Paul native, Nier was a University of Minnesota alumnus (Ph.D., Physics - 1936), a faculty member for more than forty years, and physics chair from 1953 until 1965. More »

The Compact Muon Solenoid CMS experiment at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has recorded its first Lead-Lead collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 2.76 TeV per nucleon pair, marking the start of its heavy ion research programme. Physicists around the world expect a wealth of new results and phenomena from these collisions, which occur at energies 14 times higher than previously achieved by the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC, Brookhaven, USA). More »

Matthew Coudron, a physics and mathematics major received a $10,000 Astronaut Scholarship. He received the scholarship from Space shuttle astronaut Capt. Daniel Brandenstein, who has flown four shuttle missions, logged more than 780 hours in space and commanded the maiden voyage of Endeavour. More »

Undecided majors and high school students are cordially invited to the School of Physics and Astronomy Open House on Thursday, November 11, 2010. There will be a pizza lunch from 11:30 a.m.- 2:00 p.m. featuring straight talk about jobs in physics and lab tours. The Physics Force will perform at 7:00 p.m. preceded by an overview of the Physics Undergraduate Program. You'll be eligible to win a copy of The Physics of Superheroes just by attending this event. More »

Inventive Women, is a photography exhibit featuring female College of Science and Engineering faculty, including School of Physics and Astronomy profressors Priscilla Cushman, Liliya Williams and Cindy Cattell. More »

Physics Force will perform two free, public shows at Coffman Union on November, 13, 2010. The shows are part of the Math and Science Family Fun Fair and will be held at 10:30 a.m. and Noon. There will also be a Mystery Science Room in Room 332 Coffman Union from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. More »